Strategies for Children partnered with the Boston Children’s Museum, the Massachusetts Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University to sponsor the summit. Support also comes from the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care, the United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley, the Boston Foundation and the TruePoint Center for Higher Ambition Leadership.

This is the second early childhood summit convened in recent years. It builds on the success of the first summit held in November, 2011, and it is also part of the Boston Children’s Museum’s 100th birthday.

Patrick spoke in the Federal Reserve’s auditorium to a full house of nearly 400 pediatricians, educators, neuroscientists, museum professionals, business leaders, economists, parents and policymakers – all pursuing the same goal: devising and acting on bright, new ideas for the future of early childhood.

“My plan is based on what actually works in classrooms,” Patrick said. His budget calls for an additional $131 million for early education in the fiscal year 2014 budget. Calling for public support and legislative action, he asked: “Do we really mean to have a better, strong Commonwealth for a generation to come?”

Using science to come up with new ideas

“My worst nightmare is that we’re all doing the same thing in five years,” Dr. Jack P. Shonkoff said at the summit. A pediatrician, Shonkoff is also the director of Harvard’s Center on the Developing Child.

Providing a quick tutorial on brain development, Shonkoff told the summit audience that it’s not enough to do what works. Proven efforts won’t fix entrenched problems such as the achievement gap between low-income and high income-children. Massachusetts needs a bigger bang for its early childhood buck. It’s time to take the risk of using science to come up with new hypotheses, Shonkoff argued, because it takes fresh ideas to produce innovations.

One old idea is to give parents information and advice about nurturing their children. Instead, Shonkoff says, parents have to be equipped to provide enrichment and protection. In particular, parents must be able to shield children from what Shonkoff calls “toxic stress,” the long-term distress caused by exposure to abuse, neglect, violence, poverty and severe maternal depression. Toxic stress impedes brain development, hindering children’s educational outcomes; and it can cause lifelong health problems.

How do you give parents these skills? By using tools that the business community takes for granted: coaches, training programs and chances to practice “executive function” skills, such as goal-setting, impulse control, problem solving and delaying gratification. These skills can also help parents do better at work, potentially increasing their families’ economic stability.

Shonkoff argued that stronger communities can also reduce toxic stress by dealing with violence and housing issues so that parents and children can thrive.

Eric S. Rosengren, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston’s CEO, shared data on children younger than five, showing that youngsters in mid-sized, low poverty cities such as Braintree and Newton do better educationally than their peers in high poverty cities such as Holyoke and Springfield. “Educational attainment is available, but not actual,” he warned. Text, video, and slides from his talk are available here.

Dr. Michael Yogman, a pediatrician and Harvard professor as well as the chair of the Boston Children’s Museum’s board, wants to write “a prescription for play.” Yogman and Carole Charnow, CEO of the Boston Children’s Museum, explained how play builds brains and provides a buffer against toxic stress. Charnow offered the analogy that work was to the industrial era, what play is to the 21st century. In other words, the country will need the imagination, collaboration and leadership that play fosters. More information on the power of play is available on the museum’s web site.

“Everyone has choices, even if they don’t see them,” Elisabeth D. Babcock, the president of Crittenton Women’s Union, said. She was describing the families that Crittenton serves through its Mobility Mentoring program, which helps parents develop a range of executive function skills as they work on improving their own and their children’s lives. Launched in 2009, the program has helped parents earn more, save more and further their educations – progress that directly benefits children.

John F. Barros, executive director of the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, described his organization’s commitment to improving outcomes for children through the Boston Promise Initiative, a partnership of community organizations led by DSNI. In phase one of this effort, the initiative set up the Dudley Village Campus based on the concept that the neighborhood and its residents, institutions, buildings and technologies are like a university campus that can serve children from “birth to career.”

A panel of business leaders made their own case, pointing out that young children need enriching experiences – especially in STEM: science, technology, engineering and math — so that when they grow up they will be able to fill the state’s knowledge economy and high tech jobs. Moderated by JD Chesloff, executive director of the Massachusetts Business Roundtable and Chair of the Board of the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care, the panel included John F. Fish, CEO of Suffolk Construction Company, Tom Leighton, CEO of Akamai Technologies, Marcy L. Reed, president of National Grid, and Charles Rizzo, chief financial officer at John Hancock Funds. Chesloff recently published an article in Education Week called “STEM Education Must Start in Early Childhood.”

Breakout sessions

The summit’s afternoon breakout sessions covered a range of topics including digital media, playful learning, public health initiatives and toxic stress. A full description is available here.

The Boston Children’s Museum plans to feature video from the summit on its web site.

Please join the conversation on innovation. Tell us what you think the future of early childhood should be.

Eye on Early Education focuses on the twin goals of ensuring that Massachusetts children have access to high-quality early education and become proficient readers by the end of third grade.

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THE BLOGGER

Alyssa Haywoode comes to Eye on Early Education after a career in journalism that included writing editorials for the Des Moines Register and Boston Globe. She has written about education, human services, immigration, homelessness, philanthropy and the arts.